ATLAS ABE

Adult Education Check-In: Q&A on Federal Funding and Policy Changes
2025-02-21 14:30 - 15:30 (America/Chicago) | Online
Registration Deadline: FRI. 2/21/25
In response to the recent LAN survey on immigrant rights, we will be offering a webinar where we’ll explore topics from the survey findings, address questions, and provide a space for discussion. Stay tuned for details and join us for this important conversation! This webinar will be co-hosted by LAN, MN ABE, ATLAS, and #IamABE.

Karen History, Culture and Language and the Adult Education Classroom presented by the Karen Organization of Minnesota
2025-02-24 18:30 - 20:30
Registration Deadline: MON. 2/24/25
Hundreds of Karen learners have attended adult education classes in Minnesota, primarily in Saint Paul, Albert Lea and Worthington. Join this session to gain essential background knowledge in order to intersect your own culture with that of Karen learners. The session will include information on Karen history, culture, life in the US and language. Participants will also reflect on how they can apply this new knowledge to their work with Karen adult education students.

AI Playgroup & Makerspace
2025-02-25 15:00 - 16:30, 2025-03-25 15:00 - 16:30
Registration Deadline: Date of each webinar
You’re invited to our playgroup! Join your adult education colleagues and members of Literacy Minnesota’s Digital Learning team for a fun, informal, and interactive learning experience. Each month, we’ll focus on a different application of generative AI to support teachers and volunteers in their work with learners. You’ll get to see lots of examples, talk about pros and cons, and have “playtime” to develop resources that you can use in your teaching context right away. Most importantly, we’ll share our creations with each other and develop a collection of open resources for adult educators.
Instead of focusing on specific AI tools or platforms, we’ll look at various “use cases” for AI:

January 28: Teaching Academic Vocabulary
February 25: Dialogues and Speaking Practice
March 25: AI and Math
April 22: AI and the Writing Process
May 27: Adapting and Developing Appropriate Texts for Adult Learners

Minnesota practitioners can earn 1.5 CEUs for attending each meeting and additional CEUs for creating, sharing, and evaluating teaching resources outside of the meeting time.
Additional information:

After registering, you’ll receive an email from “MNABE Staff” with a link to join the meetings.
Attendance at all five sessions is NOT required. Register for the series, and you can join on the days that work for you.
NO prior knowledge or AI expertise is necessary! We’ll help you get started with a free AI tool if needed. Just bring yourself (and a sense of humor).
A portion of each session will be recorded.
To request ASL interpretation or other accommodations, contact support@mnabedistancelearning.zendesk.com
This will be fun!

Administrators, Where Shall We Begin? Planning & Budgeting for the Coming Year
2025-02-26 13:00 - 14:30
Registration Deadline: WED. 2/26/25
Decisions, decisions… It’s that time again; planning for the coming school year is upon us! Join your colleagues and state staff for a time of discussion and learning around making plans and budgeting strategically for the 2025-2026 school year. State ABE Program Quality Specialist Jodi Versaw will be on hand for questions, and administrators from various contexts from around the state will share their puzzles and strategies, with ample time for conversation.

Volunteer Data Mid-Year Check-In
2025-02-27 13:00 - 14:00
Registration Deadline: WED. 2/26/25
If you’re a new volunteer coordinator, teacher, or just need a refresher on updating your volunteer data in SiD, this mid-year check-in session is for you! Literacy Minnesota is partnering up with SiD to help you to clean up your volunteer data in SiD and provide access to volunteer trainings completed by your volunteers. Minnesota now require programs to provide volunteer trainings. Literacy Minnesota will provide information on how programs can have access to up-to-date completed volunteer trainings in this session. This training is for new ABE staff who uses SiD to update program service, and any other staff that needs a refresher for updating volunteer data in SiD. This training is free for all Minnesota ABE staff.

Teaching Reading Vocabulary
2025-02-28 13:00 - 15:00
Registration Deadline: FRI. 2/28/25
Vocabulary is everyone’s favorite reading component! And helping students master reading vocabulary is a key to helping them master comprehension.
But how many words should you teach? And which words are the most important? What strategies are best for helping students learn new words? How do you get students to make new words part of their receptive and productive vocabularies? This webinar will focus on the theory and best practice behind choosing, teaching and reviewing reading vocabulary. You’ll get a chance to learn about (and practice) a variety of activities that can be done remotely or in person. Links to great online resources will also be provided.
This workshop will be most useful for instructors working with low-intermediate to advanced readers.

One-Room Schoolhouse Community of Practice
2025-02-28 13:30 - 14:45
Registration Deadline: Day of each session
Join seasoned one room schoolhouse educators from Project for Pride in Living in Minneapolis and Lakes Area Adult Education in Detroit Lakes for this final Community of Practice meeting on Friday, Feb 28, 1:30-2:45pm. Presenters will be sharing their strategies for tracking student goals and progress, which is always a challenge in this context! Following the panelists there will be time for open questions and sharing as well.

Presenters: Genna Hart & Denise Goldman, Project for Pride in Living; Staci Landsem & Jen Hellekson, Lakes Area Adult Education

Register for any or all of this year’s meetings!

Meeting 1: Thursday, December 5, 2024 – 2-3:15 pm – REGISTER
Meeting 2: Wednesday, January 15, 2025 – 12:30-1:45 pm – REGISTER
Meeting 3: Friday, February 28, 2025 – 1:30-2:45 pm – REGISTER

Volunteer Core Training Module 1: Overview of Minnesota Adult Education and Program Accountability
2025-03-03 18:30 - 20:30
Registration Deadline: MON. 3/3/25
Participants learn about Adult Basic Education programming in Minnesota, demographics of learners, instructional content standards as well as initial and on-going assessment. This session wraps up with learner motivations, barriers and persistence.

Burlington English Lunch and Learn: Pronunciation
2025-03-04 13:00 - 13:45
Registration Deadline: TUE. 3/4/25
In this session, we will explore the speech and pronunciation features in Burlington English. We will go over the Speech Trainer, speech in the Vocabulary Practice, and the tutorials.
NOTE: Attendees must have current login credentials for their BE account.

Teaching Intermediate Alphabetics
2025-03-04 18:30 - 20:30
Registration Deadline: TUE. 3/4/25
Teaching intermediate alphabetics (syllables, prefixes, suffixes, root words) is a great way to help students build their decoding and comprehension skills. Come learn a variety of fun and easy-to-use routines and activities for helping intermediate-level readers develop these important tools.

Leadership Book Club FY25
2025-03-05 12:00 - 13:00, 2025-04-09 12:00 - 13:00
Registration Deadline: Day of Each Meeting
The books have already been ordered for this round (Brene Brown, Dare to Lead). If you already have a copy and are interested in the Leadership Book Club (or might want to join the next book!), please email Patsy Egan, pegan02@hamline.edu.
Please note that all attendees need to register to receive the Zoom link to join.

Meeting 1: WED. 1/29/25 – REGISTER
Meeting 2: WED. 3/5/25 – REGISTER
Meeting 3: WED. 4/9/25 – REGISTER

Tips and Strategies for Online Instruction
2025-03-07 13:00 - 15:00
Registration Deadline: FRI. 3/7/25
During the early days of the pandemic, remote instruction was a necessary evil that many begrudgingly endured. But as the options for in-person instruction opened up, many learners chose to continue to learn in an online environment. Join this session to learn and see modeled tips and strategies for teaching and tutoring online, and determine how to bring them back to your context. This session is appropriate for educators working with both English language learners and adult education students. (Note: This session does not include technical how-to skills for using Zoom or other platforms.)

Volunteer Core Training Module 2: Understanding Adult Learners
2025-03-10 18:30 - 20:30
Registration Deadline: MON. 3/10/25
Participants develop their personal cultural awareness and learn how expectations around school culture shape how people teach and learn. Guiding principles for effectively delivering instruction to adults are also covered. Finally, participants increase their sensitivity to the challenges of learning English and developing literacy as an adult.

Comprehension Strategies for Intermediate-Level Readers
2025-03-12 18:30 - 20:30
Registration Deadline: WED. 3/12/25
Research shows that explicitly teaching a set of comprehension strategies is a great way to help intermediate-level readers maximize their understanding of texts. Come learn a handful of great comprehension tools that will help students develop critical thinking skills and comprehension skills.

Volunteer Core Training Module 3: Instructional Best Practices: Working with Learners
2025-03-17 18:30 - 20:30
Registration Deadline: MON. 3/17/25
Participants learn how to apply teaching practices that support language and skill development for all learners. These practices include ensuring that instruction is learner centered, using an appropriate level of teacher talk and delivering error correction.

Trauma-Informed Teaching Practices for Adult Learners Presented by Andrea Echelberger
2025-03-21 13:00 - 15:00
Registration Deadline: FRI. 3/21/25
Learning new languages and skills as an adult is a challenge for most people, and that challenge grows when trauma and stress are present. Trauma and chronic stress can come in many forms, and impact people’s ability to learn new skills and process information in a variety of different ways. In this webinar, learn how stress and trauma can manifest in the adult education classroom, and learn about healing-centered teaching practices that can help to support positive learning behaviors and increase retention and learner comfort.

Volunteer Core Training Module 4: Instructional Best Practices: Working with Materials
2025-03-24 18:30 - 20:30
Registration Deadline: MON. 3/24/25
Participants will engage in a couple of classroom activities to experience scaffolding, checking comprehension and the gradual release of responsibility. These aspects of teaching and tutoring are then defined, explained further and participants get opportunities to practice them.

Developing and Practicing Reading Fluency
2025-03-25 13:00 - 15:00
Registration Deadline: TUE. 3/25/25
Come and review the important role of fluency in reading instruction. We will discuss the three key components of reading fluency and look at a variety of activities tutors and teachers can try. We will talk about the mechanics of doing fluency practice via Zoom, Google Meet, Teams or any other remote tutoring tool (including the phone!). Participants will have plenty of opportunity to ask questions and share resources.
This workshop will be most useful for instructors working with low-intermediate to advanced readers.

Tuesdays for Teachers: GED Math Test-Taking Strategies & Calculator Skills, Part 1
2025-03-25 14:30 - 15:30
Registration Deadline: TUE. 3/25/25
Presented by Kellie Blair Hardt, this month’s Tuesdays for Teachers will focus on helping learners bridge the gap between struggle and success on the GED Math exam. This interactive, hands-on session will equip you with proven test-taking strategies to support learners in overcoming common skills gaps. You’ll learn what to teach and how to teach it to enhance student comprehension, reduce errors, and improve test efficiency—including how to maximize the TI-30XS Multiview calculator to its full potential.

Culturally Responsive Practices for Diverse Adult Learners Presented by Jimmie Heags
2025-03-28 13:00 - 15:00
Registration Deadline: FRI. 3/28/25
Join presenter Jimmie Heags, Jr., MA, LSC, LPCC, LADC, ACS, for this session that explores how cultural identities and experiences impact student-instructor interactions and shape the way we make meaning of the world. Participants will gain awareness of their own cultural perspectives, social location and the need for cultural humility in Adult Basic Education with the goal of enhancing the outcomes of adult learners and educators’ own professional development. Learning will be acquired through the explanation of concepts, anecdotes and stories, videos and participant reflection.

Minnesota State - ABE Corequisite Affinity Group Meeting
2025-04-03 14:00 - 15:15, 2025-04-04 10:00 - 23:15
No Registration – use this JOIN LINK to join each Zoom meeting.
Developing and advancing effective College and ABE co-req classroom partnerships is the business of ABE and Minnesota State educators working together through periodic Affinity Group (AG) meetings. The Affinity Group’s composition by role includes ABE Educators, Faculty, College Deans and Administrators, anyone with co-req reporting responsibility, and ABE Regional Directors. The Affinity Group sessions bring together all these practitioners who wish to explore and promote effective partnership models for student success in the co-req environment. All voices are welcome to help shape local and statewide collaboration strategies.
Additional information about the Affinity Group >>
MEETING DATES & TIMES: JOIN LINK
Fall 2024 (both meetings will have the same content; attend the one that best fits your schedule)
Meeting 1: Thursday, October 31, 2024 – 2:00-3:15pm (CDT)
Meeting 2: Friday, November 1, 2024 – 10:00-11:15am (CDT)

Winter 2025 (both meetings will have the same content; attend the one that best fits your schedule)
Meeting 3: Thursday, January 30, 2025 – 12-1:15pm (CST) NOTE TIME CHANGE!
Meeting 4: Friday, January 31, 2025 – 10:00-11:15am (CST)

Spring 2025 (both meetings will have the same content; attend the one that best fits your schedule)
Meeting 5: Thursday, April 3, 2025 – 2:00-3:15pm (CDT)
Meeting 6: Friday, April 4, 2025 – 10:00-11:15am (CDT)
If you require ASL interpretation, contact Gail Rutan at grutan01@hamline.edu

Teaching Reading Vocabulary
2025-04-07 18:30 - 20:30
Registration Deadline: MON. 4/7/25
Vocabulary is everyone’s favorite reading component! And helping students master reading vocabulary is a key to helping them master comprehension.
But how many words should you teach? And which words are the most important? What strategies are best for helping students learn new words? How do you get students to make new words part of their receptive and productive vocabularies? This webinar will focus on the theory and best practice behind choosing, teaching and reviewing reading vocabulary. You’ll get a chance to learn about (and practice) a variety of activities that can be done remotely or in person. Links to great online resources will also be provided.
This workshop will be most useful for instructors working with low-intermediate to advanced readers.

ABE Hotline Basics
2025-04-08 09:00 - 10:00
Registration Deadline: TUE. 4/8/25
The ABE Hotline is an important way for potential students to find ABE programs in their area. In this Zoom session, staff from Literacy MN and the SiD Support team will explain:

how the hotline works
how SiD delivers ABE program info to the hotline
how to make sure your information is up to date on the hotline
how to search for classes on the hotline
how students can start registration online (E_intakes)

We’ll also share ways you can help spread the word about the hotline in your area.
This optional training is for new SiD users or any MN ABE staff who need a refresher on updating hotline class details.

Burlington Boost: Overview of BurlingtonEnglish Prepare for CASAS STEPS Reading In-Class Lessons
2025-04-08 13:00 - 13:45
Registration Deadline: TUE. 4/8/25
In this session, we will explore the newly released Prepare for CASAS STEPS Reading In-Class Lessons built for teachers to help students with mastering various CASAS Competencies. We will go over where to navigate to them and also strategies to use them in the classroom.
NOTE: Attendees must have current login credentials for their BE account.

Volunteer Core Training Module 1: Overview of Minnesota Adult Education and Program Accountability
2025-04-09 18:30 - 20:30
Registration Deadline: WED. 4/9/25
Participants learn about Adult Basic Education programming in Minnesota, demographics of learners, instructional content standards as well as initial and on-going assessment. This session wraps up with learner motivations, barriers and persistence.

Spring 2025 ABE Statewide Virtual Conference
2025-04-11 08:30 - 15:15
Registration Deadline: FRI. 4/11/25
NOTE: The FLYER with session descriptions and Join Links is available through registration only. Most sessions will be recorded-see the flyer for details.
AGENDA:
8:30-9:45 – Welcome & General Session: will feature two national speakers from the Southern Illinois PD Center, Sarah Goldammer and Tara Schwab, speaking on Adult Learning Challenges and the Power of Universal Design for Learning (UDL):
ALL of our Adult Education learners can learn and deserve the opportunity to learn. If you agree with this statement and are looking for tools to help you elevate instructional practices and remove barriers, join this session to view teaching and learning through the lens of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). How can we design for variability to reach and teach those learners with a variety of barriers? Let’s consider teaching not only “what” to learn but also “how” to learn through the sharing of concrete examples for immediate insertion into your classroom. We are passionate about lifting our learners as we elevate instruction. Please join us and either broaden your UDL knowledge or learn about UDL for the first time.
10:00-11:00 – Session 1 (4 concurrent sessions, 60 min)
11:15-12:15 – Session 2 (4 concurrent sessions, 60 min)
12:15-1:00 – LUNCH BREAK
1:00-2:00 – Session 3 (4 concurrent sessions, 60 min)
2:15-3:15 – Session 4 (4 concurrent sessions, 60 min)
If you require ASL interpretation, contact Gail Rutan at grutan01@hamline.edu

TOPICS:
A variety of concurrent sessions will be offered on the following topics:

Adult Career Pathways (ACP) marketing
ACP Credential Specialists
Beginning ESL Literacy
Corrections: Packets in Action
Critical Information Literacy
Digital Literacy & Beginning ELLs
Federal policy/funding changes & ABE
Financial Literacy
Higher Order Math Concepts
Leadership: Navigating Difficult Conversations
Mental Illness Awareness
Padlet Sandbox: an option to replace Jamboard
Positive Student Behavior using ACES/TIF
Reading Instruction
Scaffolds and Differentiation
Suicide Prevention
Teaching Science: Physics

General Session Speakers:
Sarah Goldammer is a passionate lifelong learner and educator. There is nothing more exciting to her than the “aha” moment and supporting others to find theirs! She currently serves as the Director of the Southern Illinois Professional Development Center – part of the Illinois Community College Board Professional Development Network.
Sarah is a certified trainer of Universal Design for Learning through CAST, a founding member of the CTAE UDL SIG, and co-creator of Illinois’ Supporting Student Success Professional Pathway. Creating supportive environments that promote conversations and meet learners where they are, helping them achieve their goals, is what motivates Sarah. She has also coached 50+ programs creating Bridges and Integrated Education and Training (IET/ICAPS) programs and has spearheaded the creation of the statewide contextualized curricula. Starting as a Special Ed teacher and with 25 years in Adult Education, she is proud to have had students from 3 to 83 years old and every age in between.
Tara Schwab is an Educational Training Specialist at the Southern Illinois Professional Development Center (SIPDC), part of the Illinois Community College Board Adult Education Professional Development Network, and she also continues to teach classes in Adult Education. Tara has 24+ years of experience in education in the areas of instruction, training, curriculum development and implementation, and mentoring. Tara’s adult education teaching and technical assistance experience includes IET (ICAPS – Illinois’ branding of IET), ESL, ABE, and ASE programs. Tara is a certified trainer of Universal Design for Learning, a credential that was earned through the Center for Applied Special Technologies (CAST). She also co-created the Supporting Student Success Pathway which involves Universal Design for Learning (UDL) implementation in programs across the state and the Career, Technical, and Adult Education Universal Design for Learning Special Interest group through CAST which is a worldwide group of professionals dedicated to infusing UDL into their practices.

Volunteer Core Training Module 2: Understanding Adult Learners
2025-04-16 18:30 - 20:30
Registration Deadline: WED. 4/16/25
Participants develop their personal cultural awareness and learn how expectations around school culture shape how people teach and learn. Guiding principles for effectively delivering instruction to adults are also covered. Finally, participants increase their sensitivity to the challenges of learning English and developing literacy as an adult.
